Help Us Get 1000's of Letters on the Record to Protest This Unnecessary Removal of Mustangs & Burros

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The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) Carson City, Nevada Field Office is planning to remove 223 wild horses and burros from the Garfield Flat Herd Management Area (HMA) and the Marietta Wild Burro Range beginning in February 2012. Marietta is the only area in the country designated to be managed principally for wild burros. Despite this special protection, the Marietta burro population is kept very low, with only 78 to 104 animals allowed on the 100-square-mile range.

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Please take easy action below to tell the BLM to cancel the removal of wild horses and burros from these HMAs and implement cost-effective and humane management strategies that leave these animals on the range, where they belong.

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We must continue to submit our comments against these unnecessary and inhumane roundups! We are building a strong public record of opposition to current BLM policy. This will play an important role in legislative and legal efforts for reform. So please, take action today!

The History Behind BLM's Management of Wild Horses Revealed By Saving America's Mustangs

"You have to know the past to understand the present." - Dr. Carl Sagan

Recently, philanthropist Madeleine Pickens, founder of Saving America's Mustangs, was entrusted with historic documents collected by Robert Springer, the first director of the BLM's wild horse and burro program.

The documents reveal that the BLM has always been an agency run by and for Western cattlemen who view wild horses as competition for cheap grazing on our public lands. The documents describe the BLM's efforts to evade both the Wild Horse Annie Act of 1959 and the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 in order to give ranchers free reign over the public lands and the mustangs that inhabit them.

Last week, at the International Equine Conference, Ms. Pickens gave a revealing presentation based on these historical documents, which is available here.

On another note, hardy thanks and congratulations are in order to Dr. Ann Marini, the Equine Welfare Alliance and theAnimal Law Coalitionfor organizing the hugely successful conference in Alexandria, Virginia last week. In addition to Mrs. Pickens' presentation, other presentations are postedhere.

AWHPC Founding Sponsor Advocacy Sponsor

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. Supported by a coalition of over 40 organizations, its grassroots campaign seeks:

* A suspension of roundups in all but verifiable emergency situations while the entire BLM wild horse program undergoes objective and scientific review;
* Higher Appropriate Management Levels (AML) for wild horses on those rangelands designated for them;
* Implementation of in-the-wild management, which would keep wild horses on the range and save taxpayers millions of dollars annually by avoiding the mass removal and stockpiling wild horses in government holding facilities.

You are subscribed to the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign's email list. You can unsubscribe here.

Also of Note...

AMERICA'S WILD HORSES ARE DISAPPEARING, Please Tell the White House to Protect Them

If you have not yet done so, please sign the "Protect Wild Horses and Burros" petition and share it on Facebook through the White House "We The People" website. We need at least 1,800 more signatures on the petition by October 28 in order to get the White House to issue a formal response.

If you have experienced difficulty signing the petition, please click here to read tips to assist you and please try again! Every signature counts.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied consideration of an appeal by the Public Lands Council, representing ranchers who benefit from taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing on public land. The appeal sought to overturn lower court decisions that blocked grazing regulations, established under George W. Bush's administration, that curtailed public participation in grazing decisions.

The Western Watersheds Project successfully challenged the harmful regulations, which affect 160 million acres of public land in eleven western states. The legal victory is an important landmark in the fight to preserve Western public lands and protect all wildlife species -- including mustangs and burros -- that inhabit them. Read more here.